Advancing Learning through Evidence-Based STEM Teaching

This eight-week course prepares science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) instructors to develop and implement teaching practices that advance the learning experiences and outcomes of both students and teachers.

About the Course
This course will provide graduate students and post-doctoral fellows in the STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) who are planning college and university faculty careers with an introduction to “teaching as research”—the deliberate, systematic, and reflective use of research methods to develop and implement teaching practices that advance the learning experiences and outcomes of both students and teachers. Participants will learn about effective teaching strategies and the research that supports them, and they will learn how to collect, analyze, and act upon their own evidence of student learning.

The course will draw on the expertise of experienced STEM faculty, educational researchers, and staff from university teaching centers, many of them affiliated with the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL), a network of 21 research universities collaborating in the preparation of STEM graduate students and post-docs as future faculty members. The eight-week course will be highly interactive, with many opportunities for peer-to-peer learning. Learning communities are at the heart of CIRTL’s activities, and this open, online course is intended to foster a large, healthy learning community of those interested in undergraduate STEM teaching—including current STEM faculty.

“Advancing Learning through Evidence-Based STEM Teaching” has been developed by faculty, staff, and students at Vanderbilt University, Michigan State University, Boston University, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The course is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1347605.

For a complete syllabus and more information about the course, please visit http://stemteachingcourse.org/introduction/about-course-2/